Goodbye My Lover
by cybergirl26
Summary: It's 2024 and Robin's current passion is to report from warzones. Warning: Rated M for violence, and angst.
1. Chapter 1

**I wanted to finally finish my other stories and then take a break but then I remembered this idea I had a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't shake it off. So here we go again…**

**28****th**** May 2024 – Morning - Robin**

Her life had become one long journey, each assignment strung to the next, no time off, no vacations and certainly no place she could call home.

It was what she had always wanted.

And contradicting to what everyone else thought of her lifestyle and whether it really was what she'd actually wanted out of life, Robin was content and happy with it.

The thrill of chasing the next big story was still exhilarating and she still enjoyed visiting new countries, cities or regions.

After all, it was what she had always wanted.

Warzones had become one of her favorite things to cover lately, and WWN was more than happy to send her to the hotspots.

Wearing bullet proof vests and being escorted by soldiers was thrilling. Hearing explosions and gun fights got her adrenalin pumping like nothing else and of course the men she was surrounded by were ripped, and in constant fight mode.

It was her thing, and she really wasn't lying when she told people that she loved her job and covering dangerous developments throughout the world.

Then everything changed on May 28th, 2024.

The day started out like any other. It didn't end that way though.

It was a slow day at camp, a couple of convoys were supposed to leave around noon but nothing out of the ordinary.

She was scheduled to interview a doctor at a hospital in a smaller city an hour away from camp. Routine.

The group consisted of herself, her cameraman Ben, and two soldiers, George and Stan.

"Ready gorgeous?" George hollered when he noticed her approaching the jeep.

It made her grin.

George was a good guy.

"You are going after all, huh?" She asked while closing in the last couple of steps.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." He replied as he opened the car door.

**May 28****th****, 2024 – Morning - Barney**

"Hurry up sweetie; we are going to be late." Barney hollered through the fortress.

"I CAN'T!" came a whiney noise back.

He followed it to its source and watched a very frustrated Ellie trying to tie her shoes.

"Honey, why are you wearing your fancy shoes and not your slippers?" Barney asked as he squatted down.

"Because I want to wear these today." Ellie replied sternly.

"Then you should have asked for my help." He suggested as he tied the shoes for her.

"I want to do it." She replied, but didn't actually try to take over.

Barney finished and got back up, "come on, we have to hurry or you'll be late."

Ellie hated to be late for pre-school and hence started running right away.

"Daddy I can't find my jacket." She yelled.

Barney took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. He knew it was part of being this age but lately Ellie was really good at pushing his buttons.

"It's by the door." He replied patiently.

"No it's not." She was close to a meltdown.

"Yes, look." He took his own coat off to show her hers.

"Oh."

Her preschool was merely three blocks away and as every morning they walked, stopping at a bagel shop for their breakfast.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

It made him smile, "I love you too honey."

Ellie grinned and snuggled her head against his arm.

He would have never chosen this life but now he wouldn't trade it for the world.

**May 28****th****, 2024 – Midday – Robin**

"Really? You don't like "Field of Dreams"?" Stan asked surprised.

"Nope." Robin replied.

"Why not?" Ben asked.

The atmosphere in the jeep had been fun. They were already on their way back from the hospital and everyone was looking forward to the afternoon.

Weirdly the horrible things she came in contact with on a daily basis weren't really affecting her as much anymore.

Sure there were stories that impacted her as well, but strangely most of them didn't anymore.

"It's about …" Robin noticed how George put the jeep in a lower gear and held his hand up to shut them all up.

Curiously Robin leaned over to look out of the windshield.

The road was blocked by a truck, but no one was in sight.

"Crab." She heard Stan hiss.

"Doesn't look good, huh?" George asked under his breath.

"Looks like a trap to me. Can you turn around?"

George quickly put the jeep in reverse, "we just passed a turnout."

"Put your vests on." Stan ordered.

Robin was still too dazzled to listen right away.

"Robin?" George and her eyes met through the rearview mirror, "put the vest on and get down."

She nodded slowly and reached for her bullet proof vest.


	2. Chapter 2

**May 24th, 2024 – Midday – Robin**

Hell broke loose so quickly that she never did put on her vest.

It started with gunshots that were fired at them, and George stepping on the gas to get them out of there.

Robin wasn't sure whether George lost control over the vehicle or whether the attackers had blown out their tires. Either way the jeep ended up spinning out of control and flipping over.

Complete silence followed.

There was a light veil of smoke in the air and one of her first thoughts was that the car would catch on fire.

The windows were all shattered all around, making the escape rather easy.

"Damn." Ben whispered next to her.

"We need to get out of here." She replied.

Ben nodded and started to crawl out on his side.

"George?"Robin whispered, she couldn't see very well.

No reply.

That's when the seriousness of the situation hit her. Without the protection of Stan and George, Ben and she would be easy targets. Very easy targets.

"George?"She asked again, a hint of panic in her voice.

"Stan?"

Still nothing.

She reached her hand out into the smoke and slowly crawled forward.

Voices could be heard outside now, but she didn't understand what they said. Didn't know the language.

She was finally able to see something.

The front of the car was severely damaged, and the airbag had imploded.

She concentrated on the driver's side first, George was covered in the powder of the airbag and appeared unconscious.

"George? Wake up." She whispered as she reached out to touch his face, "please…I need you. Wake up."

No reaction.

It took all she had to not become hysteric.

The voices outside came closer and she turned towards the passenger seat.

Stan was also covered in white powder, however his was mixed with blood.

It didn't take a medical degree to identify the gun wound and know that there wasn't anything she could do for him.

She quickly turned back to George, "please, please wake up George, come on."

She was still repeating her mantra when she was dragged out of the wreck by strong arms, and pushed onto the hard ground.

It briefly occurred to her that she had picked the worst day to wear a blouse and skirt before turning her attention back to what was actually going on around her.

It was a handful of masked guys, two of which were now dragging George out of the demolished jeep while the other three stood by Ben and her side with their machine guns.

They didn't even seem to be in a hurry or nervous.

They started to pat George down, and took all the weapons he had had on him. Next was Ben.

She was last.

While being blindfolded and cuffed she told herself that things could have been worse. She tried very hard not to think about Stan's vacant stare.

**May 24th, 2024 – Midday – Barney **

The radio was playing in the background while Barney was typing away on his laptop.

The bro code was due to be released in fall and he was still a couple of chapters away from completion.

As always he stopped typing when the news cast came on. Not because he was particularly interested in the developing stories, but rather because he wasn't able to think and write while listening to people talking.

He spaced out during a broadcast about a political campaign and didn't really listen to the newest developments of that murder trial going on either.

"The jeep with US journalists on board was ambushed earlier today; thus far the two journalists and one soldier are missing. One more was found dead."

Barney shook his head; the world was such a wicked place. Who would go after journalists? They were the ones who told the rest of the world what was really going on and hence often sparked the aid efforts.

The music came back on and he got back to work on his book.

**May 24th, 2024 – Afternoon – Robin**

There was no way to tell where they were, who exactly took them and what they wanted.

All Robin knew for sure was that her bones were aching from the car crash and that they were somewhere underground.

She was still blindfolded, but they had walked down a staircase upon arrival.

Ben had been behind her the whole time, but she wasn't sure whether or not they were alone and didn't want to find out either.

That was until she heard moaning.

"George?" the question had escaped her lips before she could hold back.

"Robin?" he asked surprised.

"Shut up guys." Ben hissed.

"What happened?" George sounded disoriented.

"We were kidnapped." She replied, "remember? The road block?"

"I'm serious, shut up before someone hears you." Ben repeated.

She could hear George starting to stir, clearly trying to get out of their constraints.

"What are you doing man? You are going to get us killed." Ben hissed.

Robin wished she wasn't restraint right now, "George? Are you hurt?"

He didn't answer right away, instead she heard him struggle even harder.

"Answer me please."

To her own surprise he stopped struggling and whispered, "I've got a killer headache and possible broken rips but I'm okay."

Robin knew his next question before he spoke it out loud and squeezed her eyes shut as a defensive mechanism.

"Where is Stan?"

She hesitated before whispering, "he didn't make it."

And that's when the silence set in again.

**May 24th, 2024 – Afternoon – Barney**

"Look what I made you." Ellie proudly presented her latest artistic masterpiece to him.

"That's great sweetie." He replied as he tried to make sense of the different colors and blobs on the piece of paper.

"I'm going to be an artist when I grow up, just like Aunt Lily." Ellie said.

Barney grinned, "I thought you were going to be a world-famous magician?"

Ellie thought about it for a second, "I can be both."

"Yes, you can." Barney agreed and grabbed Ellie's backpack from the rack.

"What do you think about Lucky's for dinner?"

"Yes!" Ellie exclaimed.

Barney smiled and took her hand, in the back of his mind he could hear Lily's voice, lecturing him on Ellie's nutrition and that eating out all the time wasn't good for her.

But he thought differently. Burning down the apartment while cooking wouldn't be good for her either, and he always made sure that she had an extra big site of veggies instead of French fries.

"Daddy? Can we go to the playground on the way home too?"

"Of course we can." He promised and Ellie skipped excited on his hand.

**May 24****th****, 2024 – Evening – Robin**

She wasn't sure how much time had passed since they'd arrived, but it must have been a couple of hours. Maybe six? Maybe more.

Ben was the one who finally broke the silence when he asked, "from your experience George, how much time do we have until they kill us?"

George took a deep breath, "depends."

"On?" Ben asked.

"Who they are, what they want, who they want."

Ben sighed, "shit."

For whatever reason Robin wasn't really that scared or worried. Yet. Maybe reality just hadn't set in for her.

**May 24****th****, 2024 – Evening – Barney**

"Ellie is in the bathtub Lily, what's going on?" Barney asked after he had sprinted to his cell phone which was currently charging in the bedroom and hadn't stopped ringing for the past three minutes.

"Turn on the TV." Was Lily's solemn reply.

"Ellie is in the bathtub." Barney replied as he disconnected his phone from the plug and went back into the bathroom to make sure she was still okay.

"Then let the water out and then turn the TV on."

"Lily just tell me what's on TV."

"BARNEY! TURN THE TV ON, NOW!" Lily yelled at him.

"Jeez, no need to scream at me." Barney replied as he handed Ellie a towel.

He pulled the plug of the bathtub and watched as Ellie looked up confused, "you have to get out now sweetie."

"Barney, hurry up." Lily shrieked in his ear.

He headed back into the bedroom and looked around for the remote control of his giant tv.

"Which channel?" he asked.

"Any news channel."

"What happened?" Barney asked once again while automatically switching to WWN.

"You should sit down for this." Lily's voice was barely a whisper now.

Barney looked at the screen, there was footage of a deserted road and an overturned truck.

"Okay I'm watching WWN and there is just some …" he stopped talking the second Robin's picture was shown.

"_The victims were now identified as WWN foreign correspondent and anchor Robin Scherbatsky, cameraman Ben Logan and soldier George Guess. The whereabouts and whether or not they are still alive are unclear at this moment. Other kidnappings have occurred in the area and thus far no victim has survived. Reporting live.."_

Barney turned the TV off and sat down on the bed.

"Oh my god." Was all he managed to say.

Lily was clearly crying on the other end now as she said, "they are going to kill her Barney."

He swallowed, "I have to go."

He didn't wait for her reply and instead ended the call, putting his phone down on the bed next to him before slowly getting up again.

Robin.

This couldn't be true. Not her. NOT HER.

The initial shock became anger and he felt like punching someone.

He kicked the chair in front of him and it fell over. But that wasn't enough. Within seconds he had swiped the items on his desk off, next was a lamp that he threw through the room.

It helped a little and he continues with some of the pictures on the wall.

"Daddy?" Ellie's soft voice finally put an end to his rampage.

He looked back over to where his little daughter was standing, wrapped in the towel he had handed her moments ago.

When life had still been good.

He sunk down to his knees as he started to cry.

No. No, no, no, no, no. Just not Robin. No.


	3. Chapter 3

**What do you guys think? Too far out there? I'd love to know what your opinions are, good and bad. Thanks!**

**May 24th, 2024 – Night - Barney**

A million thoughts ran through his head at once.

Flashes of memories flooded his brain, their very first kiss, their first night together, their wedding day.

And every single one made him cry even harder.

He had buried his head into his hands and hence didn't notice Ellie until she hugged him tentatively.

"It's okay daddy." His little daughter tried to soothe him while she gently rubbed his back like he would usually do with her when she was upset and crying.

He put his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"It's okay." Ellie repeated.

It took him another minute or so to regain his composure enough to face her. He knew that he wouldn't be able to stay strong long, but he had to hold it together long enough to get her to bed.

"Thanks sweetie. Come on, it's time for bed." He got up with her.

Ellie didn't try to argue with him, even though he had previously promised to read her a story from her favorite book.

"Put your PJs on okay? I'll get you a water." Barney said as he lowered her back down.

Ellie nodded and ran into her room.

He watched the water as it was flowing into the Sippy cup and tried very hard to concentrate on the task at hand and not think about Robin for now.

**May 25th, 2024 – Early Morning –Robin**

Neither one of them were able to sleep but there was no talking either.

The silence didn't really bother her though.

The hard floor did.

She closed her eyes, even though she was blindfolded and fairly sure that it was nighttime anyways.

The thoughts that ran through her mind were completely random.

The journalistic side of her was trying to piece together the story; who had taken them? What did they most likely want? Who knew what had happened?

Having covered similar cases herself she knew that news channels had most likely found out about the kidnapping by now.

Especially since a US soldier was dead.

She supposed they had aired some information on the nightly news back in the US, but doubted that it would be more than a standard piece.

Had WWN contacted her emergency contact yet? Probably.

If only she could remember who the hell she had put down for that back in 2011. Had she even named anyone? Or had she simply made up a name and put her own telephone number? Likely.

They had most likely contacted Stan's family by now.

Ben had a wife back in New Jersey, did she knew about what had happened yet?

George was divorced with a son. Had he learned of his father's fate?

She didn't want to think too much about the people, or lack thereof, who would be devastated by these news in her own life and hence broke the silence;

"By now everyone knows what has happened."

"Bad news travels quickly." George replied solemnly.

"Trish was always worried about me going into these danger zones, and I always told her she was being silly." Ben replied, it sounded as if he was fighting tears.

"I wonder whether Elena has told Josh the truth." George wondered out loud.

"She probably has, right? I mean how old is Josh? 12? He deserves to know stuff like this." Robin replied.

"He's still just a kid though. Maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing if Elena doesn't tell him right away." George replied.

"I'm starving." Stan whispered.

"They probably want to weaken us so we won't put up a fight." George replied.

"Would you?" Robin asked.

"Would I fight them if I had the chance? Hell yeah. At least then you know that you did everything you could to save your life." George replied.

Robin thought about it, she'd always considered herself a fighter, but realistically she knew that she wouldn't stand a chance in a real fight.

Maybe if she had a gun.

**May 25th, 2024 – Early Morning –Barney**

His phone was blowing up with messages but Barney ignored them all.

He was sitting on his bed with a bottle of scotch and some old pictures of him and Robin.

He hadn't looked at them for years, and he probably shouldn't have taken them out tonight either.

They made everything worse.

Robin and he hadn't spoken in years. Since before Ellie was born.

Did she even know that he had a daughter? Someone had probably told her.

Did she know her name? Her birthday? Probably not.

He looked back down at their wedding pictures, how had this happened?

How had they drifted apart like this?

It had happened slowly really, they were so blissful and happy in the beginning of their marriage, but then all the traveling had gotten to them.

In the beginning he had regretted giving up on their marriage so quickly.

He had made plans on how he would get her back, but never acted on them.

And then Ellie was born and he knew that he had missed his chance. Ellie was the deal breaker, Robin never wanted kids, and she certainly wouldn't want his love child.

Oddly he was okay with that. He loved Ellie, and he loved being a dad.

Now he regretted not going after her one more time.

He tried to remember the last time he had seen her. Was it the last rooftop Halloween party in the old apartment? That couldn't be right.

He surely had ran into her again some time after that. He must have.

But maybe he just felt as if he had seen her more recently because her career had really taken off and she seemed to be everywhere these days.

In the beginning he would watch her show and dwell in self-pity. But that also stopped when Ellie was born.

He would sometimes watch her when she happened to be on while he switched channels, but he wasn't actively seeking her segments out.

Mostly because it hurt too much. Seeing her on TV brought back old feelings.

He had noticed that she was always in some foreign country though.

He wished he would have done things differently now. He should have reached out to her more.

Sure Lily had tried to get Robin to join them for the big events such as Ted's wedding, and the births of their kids, even Thanksgiving, but Robin had never shown up.

She might have done it if he would have called her instead of Lily. He could have promised her that things weren't going to be awkward or weird.

Somehow he had ended up with the gang after the divorce, and he should have fought that more.

He wondered what her life was like these days. Was she in a relationship? Where was her home?

Usually he avoided googling her because he knew how dangerous it was to dwell on these things.

But not tonight. Seeing her picture on television and the report had already brought all the repressed feelings back to light anyways.

There was no denying that he still loved Robin Scherbatsky.


End file.
